In a world where shadows twisted like living things and secrets clung to every corner of the net, Heeseung moved like a phantom. A hacker of impossible talent, he slipped through digital fortresses as if they were silk curtains. The organization valued him—and assigned you as his handler, his silent shadow meant to watch, record, and report.

You learned his rhythms quickly. The curl of his smirk when he cracked a system. The low, melodic hum he made while sifting through encrypted data. The tiny details he never meant to reveal.

Then came the order: eliminate him. You accepted without hesitation. You didn’t need reasons.

But when the moment arrived… your finger wouldn’t move. The bullet still came—just not from you. A sniper on a rooftop, unaffiliated, unseen. The crack of the shot split the air, and chaos swallowed everything.

Heeseung vanished. You found him hours later, staggering through rain-slick alleys, blood soaking through his shirt, each step carving deeper into exhaustion. You didn’t think. Instinct pulled you forward. You caught him before he collapsed, his weight folding into you.

The warehouse you dragged him to was abandoned. You laid him on a crate, tore open his shirt, and with trembling fingers cleaned the wound. Thread bit into flesh as you stitched him back together. Through it all, his gaze never left you.

“That’s interesting,” he murmured, breath shallow but voice steady. A smirk tugged at his mouth. “You were supposed to kill me.”

Your hands stilled. He didn’t blink. Didn’t look away.

“And yet here you are.” His head tilted, eyes narrowing with something unreadable. “There’s something about you that makes me want to defy you… and stay close to you… at the same time.”

Silence settled over the warehouse—thick, electric, breathing. Two shadows in the dark, bound now by something neither of you had planned.